Coastal Restoration Trust of New Zealand

Coastal Dune Ecosystem Reference Database

Vegetation of New Zealand Book

Author
Wardle, P.
Year
1991
Publisher / Organisation
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Summary
The present distribution and ecology of New Zealand plants is discussed from a historical viewpoint. It is suggested that during the Miocene a southern extension of the New Zealand archipelago ~upported a cool temperste flora, which gave rise to the present mountain flora after the onset of orogeny and climatic cooling in the Pliocene. As there wa~ scarcely any simultaneous development of a distinctive flora adapted to the dry conditions which prevail to the east of the mountain axis, Cockayne's opinion that extremely arid Pleistocene climates evoked certain characteristic life forms-notably the divaricating;uvenile form of some trees-is considered to be substantially incorrect. That these life forms are adapted to still
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